Q&A: Director Laura Nix on teenagers changing the world

For high school students passionate about science, a spot at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is a dream come true. The finalists profiled in Laura Nix’s new documentary, Inventing Tomorrow, are motivated by a desire not just to attain science-fair glory but also to help address environmental problems affecting their communities.

Nix is perhaps best known for her 2014 documentary about climate activism, The Yes Men Are Revolting. In her latest film, she weaves together stories about young people from Indonesia, India, Mexico, and the US. Inventing Tomorrow is a moving and optimistic look at students who are using science and technology to help the places where they live—and a must-watch for anyone engaged in science education. (See the Physics Today review .)

In June, just after the AFI Docs Film Festival in Washington, DC, Physics Today sat down with Nix to discuss the documentary and the new education initiative it spurred.

PT: What inspired you to make a film about ISEF competitors?

NIX: I think that our culture has difficulty talking about big environmental issues in a way that allows people to know that they have choices and options moving forward. It’s very easy to become numb or paralyzed by the information that we know. When I saw these young people doing these science projects, I was so struck by the clarity of their vision. They can have such profound environmental impact. I wanted to be able to share that with a larger audience.

We specifically constructed the film to make sure that it’s not just about climate change but a range of environmental issues. There are four teams. One project is related to climate change. The others deal with water safety and industrial contamination. That was something that was really striking to me about the four groups of students: All of them were doing something very local in response to a local crisis.

PT: Tell us a little bit about how you found the students you profile in the film.

NIX: I work closely with the Society for Science and the Public, which runs ISEF. They introduced us to science-fair directors all over the world. Then we started the very elaborate and time-consuming process of writing to people and asking them for names of students coming up through their system who might be interesting for our film. We were specifically looking for students working on projects that have environmental impact. We interviewed probably hundreds of kids. The painful thing was that there were so many amazing people doing incredible work, and I couldn’t film them all.

It was very important to me to not make what we call in the documentary world a competition doc. I wasn’t interested in whether or not our students won. I was interested in why they were doing what they were doing. I wanted to tell the story of their culture, the ecological region where they live, the problem that they want to address. When you see a young person defending their project at the fair, it’s a completely different experience if you know where they’re coming from.

PT: There are a lot of scenes filmed with the students’ families and friends. How do those scenes at home fit into your bigger vision for the film?

NIX: We wanted to be able to show not just the students as young scientists but also the students socially, so that we understand why these students are fighting so hard to protect where they live. Each one of them is basically fighting for the survival of their ecological community. It’s not just because they want to save the Earth—they want to make sure that their family can continue to live there for generations to come.

You’ll notice with many of the students that the parents are really involved in encouraging their education. The school is encouraging. The mentors are encouraging. It takes all of that support to help the young person get that far. We want the film to encourage that kind of support, because that’s what it’s going to take for us to work together to make change.

PT: At various points in the film, we see all of the groups working with university mentors. How did the students usually find their mentors?

NIX: It’s no coincidence that all four of our teams had university mentors. I think that students who are able to work with university mentors are automatically working at another level. In Sahithi Pingali’s case, she knew what she wanted to work on, and she did a bunch of research on her own to find out who in India was working in the field. She wrote to 10 professors. One of them wrote back and said, “OK, I’ll work with you,” and that was her university mentor. In Mexico, there’s a more formalized government program to match university professors and students. In Jared Goodwin’s case, a faculty member at his high school introduced him to a professor at the University of Hawaii. In Indonesia, Nuha Anfaresi and Intan Putri found a professor, and then they asked people from the science fair to put them in touch.

I think that it’s so important for young people to work with a mentor—not just to help them with their projects but also to have the experience of going to university and saying, “Oh, this is what my life could be like. That’s what it looks like to be a scientific researcher.” They meet college students and grad students who are just a level up from them, and I think that it opens up that path of opportunity. One of the things that we want to do with our impact and engagement plan is strengthen mentorship networks and encourage more professors and graduate students to mentor young people.

PT: Tell us more about that impact and engagement plan.

NIX: The two main goals of the campaign are to promote equal access to high-quality STEM education all over the world and to advocate for youth environmental stewardship and leadership. We’re looking at ideas like strengthening mentorship networks and encouraging students who have seen the film to do their own original scientific research about an issue in their communities that they care about.

We’re also working on helping the students behind some of the best projects hold science town halls, where they can present what they’ve found to the community so that people understand what might be happening there. There’s something quite special about a young person presenting research; the kids are able to cut through something that sometimes adults or scientists cannot. I think that people are more open to hearing what a young person in their community would say than a professional scientist, particularly in communities where there is climate denial.

PT: Are there ways for scientists interested in becoming mentors to reach out to ISEF competitors?

NIX: Yes! They can go to our website and send us an email. We’re going to be tracking who’s interested in becoming a mentor where, and then we’ll be creating digital infrastructure to help people connect. Educators can also show the film in a school and have professors from the community who are interested in mentoring attend that screening and say, “Hey, I’m here if you’re interested in doing something like this.”

PT: What have you heard from the students since you finished filming?

NIX: I’m in touch with the students very frequently, and it’s been really exciting for me to watch what everybody is doing now. All three students in Mexico [Fernando Sánchez Villalobos, Jesús Martínez Aranda, and Jose Elizade Esparaza] are in university. Sahithi got into Stanford early decision, and she’s seeking out partners to work with in the Silicon Valley area as she continues to work on her project. Nuha is continuing to work on her project at university in Indonesia, and Intan is studying medicine. Jared starts his senior year of high school this fall.